City staff members Tuesday will unveil proposed rules to govern the recreational marijuana industry, including a controversial cap seeking to prevent Boulder businesses from growing more than 1,000 plants at a time.

The proposed ordinances would also freeze Boulder's acceptance of new medical marijuana business applications between March 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2014. The city would process applications from medical marijuana businesses seeking to convert to recreational businesses between June and September 2014. City officials propose they begin taking applications for new dispensaries and recreational shops beginning Oct. 1, 2014. Another key change would keep marijuana shops would keep marijuana shops further away from schools.

The proposed rules — many of which are based on existing medical marijuana regulations in the city — will be introduced at the Boulder City Council meeting tonight. The rules are intended to bring Boulder into compliance with Colorado's Amendment 64, which voters approved last November, city officials said. About 75 percent of Boulder voters supported the ballot measure.

The proposed ordinances, which are scheduled to be up for public hearings Sept. 17, pick up where City Council left off in March when it chose not to adopt recreational marijuana rules, instead waiting on the state to issue its regulations first. A majority of council members at that time said they favored a moratorium on such businesses until sometime next year, but did not adopt one.

Assistant City Attorney Kathy Haddock said the city is using the medical marijuana rules as a guide.

“People know what they need to comply and we know what we need for enforcement,” she said.

The 1,000-plant limit for facilities cultivating marijuana for recreational use differs from the existing medical marijuana rules, though. Grows that provide medical marijuana are limited by the number of patients a dispensary serves.

Haddock said the newly proposed limit is meant to keep Boulder's enforcement costs down and monitor recreational grows with a single police officer.

“If a place has thousands of plants in it, it's hard to go through and count them,” Haddock said.

But, those in the industry say the new rule will make it hard for recreational marijuana shops to meet demand in Boulder.

Shawn Coleman, a consultant who works on behalf of the marijuana industry, takes issue with the 1,000-plant limit, saying the state never set such a limit and no other community in Colorado has done so on its own. He said that limit would put Boulder stores at a competitive disadvantage as well as create the need for more grows, which would counter city goals to keep marijuana businesses from monopolizing city commercial space.

A city memo regarding the forthcoming proposals show that many medical marijuana business owners are concerned about the plant limits. At a meeting between city officials and medical marijuana business owners in July some attendees estimated that at least 100 facilities containing 1,000 plants would be needed to meet local demand for recreational pot, the memo says.

Coleman said Boulder's medical marijuana system works for both the city and business owners, which he said is why he is confused by city staff's recommendations to alter it before applying it to recreational pot shops.

“The staff is basically asking us to move from a well-known, tested, revenue-neutral system that has been in place for three years to something very different and very new without any real basis for it,” Coleman said.

The newly proposed ordinance would not allow for recreational shops and medical dispensaries to co-locate. Haddock said the proposed rule was drawn up to address problems the city has encountered with bookkeeping practices at Boulder dispensaries, as well as a desire to keep down enforcement costs.

“The hardest things for these businesses in our experience is maintaining records,” Haddock said. “We're under the understanding that Council does not want to add more staff.”

An amendment to Boulder's medical marijuana ordinance changing the school setback requirement from 500 feet to the federal 1,000-foot standard also concerns Coleman who said it could force several recently established dispensaries to close. In written recommendations he sent to the city, Coleman recommended the change only apply to businesses established after the end of 2013.

Coleman disagreed with the delays in the city's acceptance of retail marijuana applications. The delay, he said, would keep recreational marijuana businesses from contributing the special sales and excise taxes on marijuana proposed by the City Council — assuming those are approved by Boulder voters in November— and would put local shops at a competitive disadvantage with businesses in cities like Denver.

Amy Hill, manager of Boulder's Helping Hands Herbals dispensary, located at 1021 Pearl St., said it is highly likely the shop will seek to become a recreational store, though she was hopeful it would continue to operate as a dispensary as well, if possible.

“We kind of feel there is not much choice given,” Hill said. “There is no guarantee that people are going to renew their (medical marijuana) cards.”

Hill said the reason recreational marijuana sales should work in Colorado is because a strong foundation has already been laid through medical marijuana, which, she said, is already very strictly regulated in Boulder. She said Helping Hands staff will be closely monitoring the city's discussions of recreational pot rules.

“I'm just really hoping that they don't take steps to shoot themselves in the foot when we can all be working together to make the city much, much more money,” Hill said.

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